1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector for a sheet-like connection member such as a flexible printed circuit or cable (FPC), a flexible flat cable (FFC) and so forth. All of these cables and circuit will be generally referred to as “FPC”.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,058 discloses a connector including an insulative housing, a plurality of contacts retained in the housing, and an actuator assembled to the housing and movable between an open position and a closed position relative to the housing. The contact includes an upper beam and a lower beam respectively formed with a contact portion. The two contact portions respectively formed on the upper and lower beams of the contact protruding towards each other and defining therebetween a gap for receiving an FPC. The actuator is provided with a plurality of cam portions each pivotally engaging with the corresponding upper beam. When the actuator is at the open position, the cam portion props up the upper beam to broaden the gap between the two contact portions so that the FPC can be inserted thereinto with zero-insertion-force, and when the actuator is at the closed position, the upper beam resile so that the two contact portions can clasp the FPC received therebetween to establish electrical connection between the FPC and the contacts of the connector. However, in such a connector, the FPC is retained merely through the two contact portions that clasp it, and thus is apt to be drawn out of the connector since the clasping force due to the resilience of the upper and lower beams is rather weak. Therefore the electrical connection between the FPC and the connector can be ensured.
Thus it is desired to provide a connector to overcome above-mentioned disadvantage.